The present disclosure relates generally to the field of chip (e.g., semiconductor chip) identification (e.g., low cost secure identification).
The need for secure computing is often critical in today's world. For example, it is often critical to ensure that a computer with which a communication is being carried out is indeed the intended computer. As described herein, one way to do this is to embed identification information inside the semiconductor chip (e.g., CPU) of the computer.
It is important that the identification mechanism used be clone proof (or nearly so). In this regard, it is noted that simply “blowing” one or more macroscopic fuses in a semiconductor chip (to use as an identifier) is not sufficiently secure because such a chip may be easily cloned by opening the package and examining the chip under an SEM (scanning electron microscope).